Receipt for silver.

This document consists of one long sentence the core of which is that A paid (ittadin) a certain amount of silver to B. The amount paid is 6 shekels. The emphasis is on A paying, not on B receiving. The other elements in the sentence reveal the full meaning and function of this payment. We learn that A owed ilku (corvée) service to the king for the present year (534-533 BCE), but apparently chose to pay for a substitute, in casu B, rather than to perform the service himself. Or in the wording of the text “he paid 6 shekels of silver (for the performance of) the ilku-service obligation to B.” He did so by order of (ina našparti) C, his recruitment clerk (dēkû), who was in charge of the collection of ilku at Yahud. Names of (at least) 2 witnesses and the scribe: …/…-Nabû//Ilšu-abušu.

A = Aḫīqam/Rapā-Yāw; B = Pili-Yāw/Yadi-Yāw; C = Yāḫû-e-DIR/Ṭāb-šalam, dēkû (= local official in charge of the levying of dues and services)